1．Introduction 1
2. The review of critical realism 3
2.1 Rise and development of English critical realism 3
2.2 The ideological and artistic features of critical realism 5
3. Analysis of Nancy’s double character 8
3.1 Manifestations of Nancy’s double character 8
3.2 Analysis of her double character from the perspective of ideological features 10
3.3 Analysis of her double character from the perspective of artistic features 11
4. The reasons for Nancy’s double character 14
4.1 Selfishness and indifference derived from instinct of survival 14
4.2 Her return to virtue derived from goodness in humanity 15
4.3 Dickens’ viewpoint of molding Nancy 16
5．Conclusion 18
Acknowledgements 19
References 20
1．Introduction
Charles Dickens, the greatest representative of the English critical realistic literature of Victorian era, was born in February, 1812. In his childhood when he thought himself a “very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy” [1]215, he was fond of playing outdoors and reading books, especially showing an ineffable interest in picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. As a matter of fact, this period was an idyllic but significant time for his whole life for it had had a great influence on his works which later gained a worldwide reputation.
As the founder and one of the eminent representatives of English critical realism in 19th century, Charles Dickens is responsible for some of English literature's most iconic characters 354
The story is set in the 19th London. The hero, Oliver Twist, is adopted by an orphanage as soon as he was born. He can’t bear the poor and hungry life in that place, so he escapes. Unfortunately, however, he is kidnapped by the evil gang of Fagin. Although intimidated by force and beguiled with money, young Oliver is unwilling to steal. With the help of Nancy, Brownlow and other kind-hearted people, Oliver finally escapes from the abyss of vice and misery, finds out who he really is and leads a happy life. The wretched and tortuous experience of Oliver and Nancy is a living embodiment of author’s miserable childhood.
From the perspective of the novel itself, Oliver Twist is not deemed as the quintessential representative work of Charles Dickens in the strict sense. Some scholars argue that Oliver Twist is a realist work smacking of romance for it exhibits some humorous language, comic characters and a happy ending to readers. As far as its historical and literary significance are concerned, however, Oliver Twist marks the beginning of the English realist literature in Victorian Era. Charles Dickens spares no efforts to reveal the hypocrisy and inhumanity of parish workhouse through the description of the little Oliver’s childhood in this novel. Furthermore, Dickens gives realistic pictures of the horrible existence in workhouse. One of the important characteristics of the novel is the real and specific description of people who lived at the bottom of the capitalistic society. Their miserable lives are just the live mirror of the dark and evil sides of British society of 19th century. Those works aroused readers to think about the need of a nationwide social reform as well as the social reasons for all sorts of criminal phenomena at that time. Along with the success of this well-known novel, “Dickens became more and more at odds with bourgeois society and more and more aware of (and exasperated by) the absence of any readily available alternative”. [4]248
In spite of her status as a secondary character in Oliver Twist, Nancy plays an irreplaceable part in the development of the novel. As a humble female thief in the gang of Fagin, Nancy is instigated to kidnap Oliver into this evil gang, but finally she sacrifices her own life to save Oliver from the abyss of miseries and sufferings. Due to the complexity in her character, Nancy has become a popular subject studied by some scholars.
Although Charles Dickens was once criticized for molding a character of “thieving, whoring, slut of the streets” [5]107, there is no doubt that Nancy is one of literature's earliest examples of the stock character of the “tart with a heart”—the stereotypical character of a tragic or fallen woman who makes her way through life by means of crime and often earns a wage as a prostitute, but is still a good and compassionate person.
The thesis
here is intended to introduce the rise and development of critical realism as well as its ideological and artistic features firstly; secondly, it will analyze Nancy’s double character from the perspective of the ideological and artistic features of critical realism; thirdly, it continues to bring out the reason for her tragedy from the perspective of the goodness of humanity and the influence of social reality on human nature.
2. The review of critical realism
In the second half of 19th century, the entire English society witnessed an unprecedented and unrepeatable movement which caused vital changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transportation. Later on, it is known as the “Industrial Revolution” which then exerted a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the England. Along with it there emerged English capitalism and bourgeois. As the working class continued to expand, they became more and more dissatisfied and cynical with their living conditions and social status. And the gap between working class and upper class became wider, which thus became the background where critical realism rose.
2.1 Rise and development of English critical realism
In a strict sense, critical realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which some writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 used to criticize and examine the serious social issues of that time. During this period suffused with intense class struggle appeared a new sort of literary trend—critical realism which flourished in the forties and in the early fifties of 19th century. It was described with a lot of vividness and great artistic skills by some critical realistic writers. The most important is that this new literature reflected the major traits of the capitalist society and criticized the capitalist system from the viewpoint of a democrat.
Critical realism had achieved great success in Europe at one time. As the industrial capitalism continued to develop throughout the Europe and the contradiction between upper class and middle and lower class became increasingly intensified. Under this backdrop, critical realism took shape and gained its initial development in France in the 1920s. From 1930s to 1940s, critical realism became the mainstream of European literature after romanticism, which was generally considered as the real peak of critical realism. Gorky once thought it was a “major, most splendid and useful literary school of 19th century”. Critical realism originated in France. Red and Black of Stendhal laid a foundation for this literary trend and Human Comedy of Balzac symbolized the highest achievement of critical realism. Moreover, critical realists like Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumasfils and Romain Rolland became famous with their sharply satirical works which formed the magnificent trend of critical realism of 19th century.
While in Britain, in the meantime, there emerged a great many celebrated writers from the middle class. They were dissatisfied with the conditions both the country and its people are faced with at that time. Therefore, they spared no efforts to denounce the darkness and corruption of the society, sympathizes people from below and advocates social reforms so as to radically change the current condition of England. In the year of 1837, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) who has been regarded as one of the three hosts of Victorian novelists (another two are Thackeray and George Eliot) wrote the novel Oliver Twist which reflects the tortuous life of Oliver Twist and mirrors the miseries people living in the bottom of the English society suffered and repudiates the defects of capitalism. In 1844, Thomas Hood (1799-1845) wrote the poem The Song of the Shirt which, through the mouth of a poor seamstress, voiced the miserable life of the female workers. These works, to a great degree, showed the writers’ deep concern and sympathy for the workers and their protests against the exploitation of capitalism. Hence, those writers were usually considered as the earliest writers of critical realism in the English literature.
Generally speaking, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray were the mature statesmen of English critical realistic literature. They represented the middle and lower classes, exposing and criticizing the evil and corruptive aspects of capitalism. Charles Dickens creates pictures of bourgeois civilization and describes the misery and sufferings of the common people by means of striking force and truthfulness. The masterpieces of Charles Dickens range from Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, to Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities. And the masterpiece of Thackeray is Vanity Fair. Although Thackeray’s was a no-class severe critic of contemporary society, his works had a deep effect on the writers that followed. As the English literary trends continue
to flourish, the methods of critical realism were further adopted by such writers as Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot. Their works were intended to describe the pathetic life of the laboring people and criticized the privileged classes. Marx thought of them as “the outstanding novelists of contemporary England” and he indicated “they have told the whole world what the politics and social truths are in their preeminent and vividly depicted works. As far as this point is concerned, they are much more critical and sarcastic than any other statesman and politics critic.”
2.2 The ideological and artistic features of critical realism
Critical realism, in the western literature, refers to a literary trend or a creative method which come into being on the basis of the previous realistic literature in Europe in 19th century. It is generally assumed that critical realism is the continuation and development of the traditional realistic literature, which is fully manifested in its ideological and artistic features.
2.2.1 The ideological features of critical realism
Specifically speaking, the ideological features of critical realism first lie in the exposure of the sin of capitalist society, which extends far more profound than ever before. Critical realists spare no efforts to reveal the bald individual interests in capitalist society: the lower class can hardly earn their living through their daily work; while the middle class become rich through exploiting the lower class and the upper class (mainly the aristocracy) enjoy their life leisurely with their old dignity and status.
Secondly, critical realism takes literature as the means to analyze and study society and enable people to understand rich and colorful social and historical scenes of some certain periods, which is of magnificent cognitive value. Critical realists usually employ some writing techniques such as humor, exaggeration, and satire to reflect the real but miserable life of bottom people. Realistic novels by some famous writers are the mirrors of their time in which people who come along see the most reliable and vivid images of people’s life at that time.
Thirdly, critical realism takes humanist thought as its main weapon, to profoundly expose and criticize the social darkness, sympathize the hardships of people living at the bottom of society and advocate social reform and improvement. The significance of critical realistic literature does not lie in whether critical realists have pointed out the correct and feasible solutions for their countries but in its exposure of the evil aspects of aristocracy and bourgeois and its reflection of the contradiction of capitalism by means of depicting the severe hardships people suffer, arousing people’s doubt about the feasibility and duration of this social system.
Finally, realistic literature shows a great concern for people’s survival during the development of social civilization, chiefly epitomizing writers’ care for people’s density and future. The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed a liftoff in economy and productive force, but the social environment of ordinary people became grim. This is also the significance of existence and development of critical realism at that time.
2.2.2 The artistic features of critical realism
The artistic features can be concluded as follows:
In the first place, Critical realists highlight writers should observe the reality in a cool and reasonable way and depict the reality in a truthful and objective way. Most of them think of art as a mirror of real life. Some even specifically state that they want their works to be the records of the times. Therefore, their works widely reflect a variety of aspects of people’s life, even every corner of the society. In order to vividly and truthfully recreate the life of the era in which they live, those writers attach great importance to the description of details and make every piece of information as accurate as possible. The realistic works of 19th century are an artistic gallery exhibiting the process of the breakdown of feudalism and the rise of capitalism, which is a splendid page in the world literature history.
In the second place, Critical realists create the typical characters in some certain environment. At the same time, they realize a human is the outcome of society so they attach great importance to the influence of environment on characters in their works. The writing attitudes of typification make the composure of the realistic writers of strong truthfulness. The disposition of typical characters is well contacted with the environment they live in. The successful characters have always been the unified typification of general and specific characteristics. And they are usually in different environment and contradictory collision, showing their different characteristics which change with the environment. When critical reali
sts depict the typical character in some certain environment, they try their best to prove the accurate environment, incidents, characters as well as details of reality. They hold human beings as the outcome of some certain societies in which environment decides the action and destiny of characters. Critical realists depict characters and relate stories through the relationships between people and society. Meanwhile, they set stories in some certain background, describing the formation and changes of people’s character and the vicissitudes of people fate.
In the third place, realistic literature is mainly narrative literature. Novels are the tools critical realists use to describe the reality and express their sentiment. In the meantime, novels gain great development and thus become mature and become prosper. After Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, there emerged more novelists such as Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Thomas Hood, whose works also mirror all aspects of their social life.
3. Analysis of Nancy’s double character
In the English literature of 19th century, the theme of caring the destiny of “little folks” and life of petty bourgeoisie is the most extensive and successful one, which we can easily see from the works of Sister Bronte or Thackeray. Both the social reality and the trend of literary creation had an imponderable influence on the Dickens’ works. Therefore, we can see that almost every novel is set in a broad social background, focuses on one family (mainly middle and small bourgeoisie family) . Dickens spares no efforts to mould a great many unforgettable female characters that have the same important status with the heroes. He has created hundreds of female characters of various characters and natures. They are linked, contrasted and set off among themselves, becoming the indispensible landscapes in his novels.
Nancy has been considered the most attractive and successful character in Oliver Twist because of her typical double character which is fully manifested in this novel by Charles Dickens. As a young prostitute and one of Fagin’s former child pickpockets as well as Bill Sikes’s lover, Nancy is unable to get out of this criminal association. However, when the young and innocent Oliver comes into her eyes, her sense of moral decency comes into conflict because she sees a young and innocent herself in the eyes of Oliver Twist and that’s part of the reason why she sacrifices her own life in the end. The following paragraphs exemplify Nancy’s vicious and virtuous aspects and analyze her double character from the perspective of ideological and artistic features of critical realism.
3.1 Manifestations of Nancy’s double character
Nancy’s double character is fully manifested in Oliver Twist. The following parts here mainly focus on Nancy’s contradictory attitudes towards Oliver Twist, Fagin and Bill Sikes.
3.1.1 The vicious aspects of Nancy
The vicious aspects of Nancy are mainly manifested in what she has done for the sake of her master Fagin and her lover Bill Sikes as well as what she had done as a pickpocket when she was as young as Oliver. Simply put, in order to help Fagin and Bill Sikes seek improper interest, Nancy cheats and hurts the innocent Oliver again and again. The following two paragraphs will set some examples of Nancy’s evil deeds.
The first example is that: after Oliver was arrested for stealing, Nancy went to police station in nice and brightly colored clothes, pretending to be Oliver’s distraught sister who was extremely worried about his little brother. There she learned from a police officer that the gentleman from whom the handkerchief was stolen took Oliver home with him. Instigated by Fagin, Nancy heads to Mr. Brownlow’s house. Outside Mr. Brownlow’s house, she pretends to want to have a word with Oliver. This innocent boy believes Nancy’s hypocritical words. As soon as Oliver steps out of the house, he is caught by Nancy. Nancy kidnapped Oliver on the way to the bookstall and finally dragged Oliver through the dark streets to Fagin’s house.
The second example is that: when Fagin, Monks and Bill Sikes needed a child to help them get in the house to steal something valuable, they thought of Oliver. Oliver was the most suitable person to finish this task for he was thin and small enough to creep into the window and few people knew him even if he was caught. At that moment, they could only rely on Nancy to bring Oliver back to Fagin. Nancy chose to obey Fagin and Bill Sikes’ order. Thus, Oliver was once again kidnapped from Mr. Brownlow’s house in which he felt happy and at ease. The pathetic Oliver was punished and instigated to help Fagin and Bill Sikes achieve their established goal. As a result, Oliver was detected when he entered that house, and he was shot and got hurt.
3.1.2 The virtuous aspects of Nancy
The vi
rtuous aspects of Nancy are mainly manifested in her protection of Oliver and her final decision and act of helping Oliver out of Fagin’s evil gang. As far as these are concerned, Nancy is a girl immersed in degenerated and decayed environment but she is noble and honest in nature. The following two paragraphs are going to set a few examples of Nancy’s noble deeds in the novel.
The first example is that: when Oliver was dragged to Fagin’s house, Fagin tried to punish Oliver with a stick. Nancy jumped to his defense for the first time, and yelled at Fagin:”I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as this (pointing to Oliver). I have been in the same trade, and in the same service, for twelve years since; don’t you know it? Speak out! Don’t you know it?” It can be easily seen that Nancy is irritated about what Fagin has done and is going to do to Oliver. As for the boy who has almost the same unfortunate destiny with her, Nancy shows her sympathy for Oliver.
Another example is when Nancy decides to help Oliver out of Fagin’s gang even though she knows she may lose her life for her disloyalty to Fagin and Bill Sikes. On that night, after managing to let Bill Sikes drink the wine with opium, Nancy went to meet Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow on London Bridge in a contradictory mood and told them Oliver’s whereabouts and the crimes of the Fagin’s gang. Nevertheless, she was killed by Bill Sikes after he knew it was Nancy Fagin who let out the whereabouts of Oliver Twist and she might even have let out some information about him and his business.
The moment when Nancy was killed after saving Olive Twist, her soul got sublimated. This is the climax of the whole story because she finally differentiates vice and virtue and commits one of the noblest acts of goodness. The depiction of this character represents Dickens' view that man, however tainted by society, can still retain a sense of goodness.
3.2 Analysis of her double character from the perspective of ideological features
The following paragraphs will mainly analyze the manifestations of double character from the above ideological features of critical realism.
When Fagin, Monks and Bill Sikes need a slim child to help them get in Maylie’s house to steal something valuable, they think of Oliver. It is very natural that they will send Nancy to kidnap Oliver to help them finish their great plan. At that moment, Nancy is unwilling to hurt such an innocent boy again who has the similar fate like her on one hand. On the other hand, she does not want to disappoint Bill Sikes with whom she is deep in love. Although she finally does as Fagin tells, we can see the good and pure aspect of Nancy’s soul. After Oliver has been shot in the robbery to Maylie’s house, Fagin relates Oliver’s misfortune to Nancy. She cries that she hopes Oliver is dead. Because Nancy knows it too well that living with Fagin is worse than death.
From the above description, it can be easily seen that the bald individual interests, selfishness and nonchalance in human nature are vividly exhibited in the novel. People in the early capitalist society do everything they can without any sense of responsibility and guilt in order to satisfy their own needs and desires regardless of whether and how other people will be hurt. From this example, it can be seen that the sin of capitalist society has been exposed through Nancy's life, which is typical of critical realism from ideological perspective.
At that time when aristocracy gain their own interests by their old and corruptive dignity and capitalists meet their own needs by their increasing capital, people from the bottom of the society such as Fagin, Bill Sikes, Nancy and other pickpockets are exploited extremely heavily on condition that they live a legal and normal life. In order to meet her basic needs in the daily life, Nancy has to take a vicious road. Therefore, there emerges another ideological feature of critical realism: critical realism show great concern about ordinary people’s survival in the course of economic development and civilization advancement.
As is known to us all, it is a law that we human beings are advancing for all time, but the material and spiritual civilization do not goes hand in hand especially those of the bottom people. Here Charles Dickens depicts a typical character Nancy to express his humanist thought towards the ordinary people. Nancy is brought up by Fagin in a selfish nonchalant and inhumane environment and she makes money by stealing and her identity as a prostitute. Dickens intends to expose and criticize the inhumane and unjust social phenomena by molding such a miserable and pathetic character. From this point, it can be seen that critical realism also characterizes in using humanist thoughts as its main weapon to criticize the darkness, degradation and corruption of capitalist society.
3.3 Analys
is of her double character from the perspective of artistic features
As the typical character in Oliver Twist, the complexity and duality in Nancy’s character embody the struggling and distortion of human nature in the typical 19th England, which conforms to the first feature of critical realism. It is no wonder that Nancy has been the most popular and attractive subject of many scholars and researchers.
When Nancy decides to meet Mr. Brownlow and Rose on the London Bridge, she needs great courage to face those people who are nobler and more elegant than her. In others words, she is ashamed of her degraded status and humble identity which is the common characteristic of lower class in that background. For the purpose of saving Oliver, she discards her resisting emotion of meeting people from another world which is opposite to hers. But when she is offered an opportunity to return to the normal and virtue life, she discards it for she is going to stay with the man she loves even though she knows what she gets finally is not a happy ending. As far as this is concerned, Nancy contradicts with herself both in her emotion. Nancy is the epitome of all the humble and poor people from the bottom of society. She is the outcome of that era in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
Critical realists highlight to reflect life as it is. “Truthfully re-create the real life” is the unanimous slogan of all critical realists, which in the meantime is considered to be one of the features of critical realism. They in particular pay attention to research and analysis. Sometimes they even readjust their existing subjective ideas in their in the creation process to make their works conform to the original things. And they hold that realistic literature should reflect social life in an objective way, exhibit the spiritual outlook of era and reveal the social contradiction. Therefore, when Charles Dickens is molding Nancy in Oliver Twist, he transplants what the lower class have suffered and what he himself has experienced into Nancy’s character and destiny.
Here is one of the examples: When Oliver sees Nancy at the first sight, he sees Nancy “wore a good deal of hair, full of curl-papers in, not very neatly turned up behind; and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings.” She was not pretty, but stout and hearty. From the above description, Charles Dickens tries to prove that although people from lower class like Nancy are humble in their social status, they are noble in their morality and dignity.
From the above statement, the artistic features of critical realism find their full expressions in the manifestations of Nancy’s double character in this novel.
4. The reasons for Nancy’s double character
Generally speaking people like Nancy have been regarded as the negative characters in most of the traditional critical realistic works. However, to some extent, Nancy is deemed as a distinctively good character for she is different from other negative characters in Charles Dickens’ works. And that is why Nancy has been a popular subject in the literary field.
4.1 Selfishness and indifference derived from instinct of survival
At the beginning of 19th century, England was undergoing a transformation from an agricultural, rural economic system to an urban, industrial system. In the extremely stratified English class structure, the highest social class belonged to the aristocracy who could enjoy the material wealth without working to make a living to support their families. With the advancement of industrial civilization and capitalist economy, the growing middle class’s influence on economy was almost as powerful as that of the aristocracy. They were anxious to be differentiated from the lower classes, and one way to do so was to stigmatize the lower class as lazy good-for –nothings.
Under such a ruthless backdrop, people from the bottom of the British society were in an awkward situation, namely they were not accepted by the upper class (the aristocracy) or the middle class (the capitalists). Hence, the poor were naturally destined for lives of degradation or desperation. Living in such a society, Nancy could have died without the help of Fagin.
Although it is hard to trace the birth background of Nancy from the novel, we can see Nancy became a child pickpocket at a very age almost as young as Oliver. Under the guidance and instigation of Fagin, Nancy became one of the thieves of Fagin’s gang. Like other child pickpockets, Nancy is subjected to Fagin’s paternal authority and dependent on him for food and shelter. In this so-called big family which provides her companionship and a means for survival, Nancy finds a sense of belonging as an orphan in this merciless society.
As time goes on, Nancy gradually has got used to such a way of life and realized in such a hypocritical, corruptive and degenerated society, for peopl
e from the bottom like her, the business of Fagin and Bill Sikes is a good and reliable means of earning her livelihood. It is in this situation that Nancy fell in love with Bill Sikes and became his lover very willingly. As a young girl eager for love, only when she stays with Bill Sikes can she feel her broken and bitter soul soothed. It is her love for Bill Sikes that makes her decide not to let out any information about Sikes and refuses Rose’s help to change her life when she meets Maylie and Mr. Brownlow on the London Bridge. Somehow she knows her love for Sikes is more crucial than her decision of returning to virtuous life. In the end, it is also her blind loyalty to Bill Sikes that leads her to the abyss of misery and suffering. In conclusion, Nancy’s evil deeds derive from her instinct to survive and her false belief in love.
4.2 Her return to virtue derived from goodness in humanity
It is clearly shown by the author that Nancy is a secondary role from the beginning to the end of this novel. And Nancy has been a thief since childhood, she drinks to excess, and she is a prostitute, but she hardly wants Oliver to become a child thief in the gang. From the moment Nancy sees Oliver, the innocence and goodness of children from his eyes which has aroused her conscience and made her reflect on Fagin and Sikes’ evil deeds. But when she decides to reveal the information to Monks’ plot, we can figure out that she may not get a happy ending. When she hears Oliver hurt in the robbery, she says she hopes Oliver has died. Because she believes death is better than living with Fagin in such a despicable way.
When Sikes sends his dog to pursuing the boy, the girl cries. At that moment, Nancy forgets her own safety. Sikes is such a hot-tempered housebreaker. It is hard to predict what he will do next minute. When Fagin wants to give a clobber to Oliver, Nancy stands out and stop it. In order to save Oliver, Nancy neglects her own safety. Her courage comes from not only her sympathy to Oliver but also her wrath to the criminal life. She can’t bear the mean and dirty life any more. Despite her tainting behavior, however, she is incredibly virtuous where the most important matters, those of life and death, are concerned. Nancy’s honorable act directly contradicts Victorian stereotype of the poor as fundamentally immoral and ignoble.
Although Nancy is a humble character in this novel, the pure love between man and woman can find fully expressions in what she does for Sikes which is totally different from her compassionate love for Oliver. Though Dickens clearly approves that her love sympathy for Oliver is more significant than her love for Bill Sikes, it is likely that both the emotions stem from the same impulse in Nancy’s character: that’s the virtue in the most recess of her human nature. And from her own viewpoint, Bill Sikes is her major motivation for her stay in Fagin’s gang. Nancy’s love for Bill Sikes is the most amazing factor in this story.
Her character comprehends virtue and vice. In the end, the virtue prevails over the vice. Therefore, Nancy is virtuous in the most recess of her heart. And it is the goodness in her human nature that leads her back to virtue.
4.3 Dickens’ viewpoint of molding Nancy
There is no doubt that every writer integrates his own emotion into a fixed character when he is molding this character. When Charles Dickens composes this famous novel, he unavoidably puts his own feelings into the character of Nancy for Nancy stands for the ordinary people who suffer the same fate with him.
When Dickens endeavours to mold the character of Nancy in Oliver Twist, he has been encountering many setbacks in his literary career as well as witnessing what the people of lower class have suffered. It is these miserable and threatening facts that have motivated him to depict the real capitalist society. Just as Balzac said, “I try to write the history of the entire society”. As a matter of fact, their practices basically conform to their intentions.
In Dickens’ realistic works, we witness the cruelty of serfdom and the breakup of the feudal society. What’s more, we also witness the rise of capitalism and the ruthlessness of capital exploitation. In particular, the exposure and criticism towards capitalism are wide enough to encompass the various aspects of social life. Generally speaking, they depict a lot of egregious and miserable pictures of people who live in the bottom of social ladder. Therefore, in Oliver Twist Nancy and her pathetic fate mirror the fate of the whole people who live at the bottom of the capitalist society.
In this novel Charles Dickens sharply points out the seriousness of social contradiction which has aroused peoples’ constant doubt and dissatisfaction. As far as this point is concerned, the character of Nancy, to a great extent, is of ineffable critical and literary
significance because Nancy and what Nancy has done re-exhibits the miserable life of poor people in the 19th England society.
Based on the above statements, it is reasonable and feasible that Dickens spared no efforts to mold Nancy in delicate way. And that’s why Nancy has always been the most popular character in Oliver Twist.
5．Conclusion
The thesis above has on the whole reviewed the rise and development of critical realism, introduced its ideological and artistic features and analyzed Nancy’s double character from the perspective of these two features of critical realism. One of the most important features of critical realism lies in that it molds characters that reflect the life of people living at the bottom of capitalist society.
As one of the masterpieces of the Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist marks the very beginning of Dickens literary life which reflects all aspects of social life in Victorian Era. In spite of her secondary character in the novel, Nancy plays an irreplaceable in the novel’s development. As a humble female thief in the gang, Nancy’s double character is thoroughly displayed and her soul gets sublimated the moment she sacrifices her only life to Oliver Twist from the abyss of misery.
One of the most features of critical realism lies in that critical realists have always been skilled at molding characters that take after and symbolize ordinary people in the real world. Nancy, a character with a vivid double character did exist in the 19th Britain society for she symbolized most of the humble people who were oppressed by the hereditary aristocracy, were exploited by the middle class and made their living by demeanor means just like what Nancy did in her daily life.
The significance of this thesis lies in that it interprets Nancy’s double character from the point of critical realistic literature under the backdrop where human nature contradicts with the individual interests in the advancement of human civilization. And it’s intended to arouse people to think deeply about the survival and the mental conditions of poor people as well as the social stability in the advancement of human civilization, which are considered to be some of the key factors of constructing harmonious society of 21st century.
Acknowledgements
My sincere gratitude first goes to my supervisor Deng Yunsheng, who patiently warmheartedly supervised my dissertation and was at times very willing to offer me illuminating advice or suggestions in the course of this thesis. Without her guidance and help, I could not have finished this dissertation.
And my heartfelt gratitude also goes to other teachers and my classmates who have offered me their warm encouragements and help during the four years of my college life.
My greatest personal debt is to my parents, who have cultivated a soul of sensitivity, hospitality, and honesty out of me, and offered a harbor of happiness and sweetness for me.
The remaining weakness and possible errors of the dissertation are entirely my own.
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